He was born to a traveling family and spent much of his life in the
air and on the road. Born August 16, 1933 in Durango Colo.
Son of Dewey and Lorine Roosa. His father was with the Corps of Engineers
and the family lived in several areas.
Rogers Co. was home to his mother, who died in 1993, his father died
in 1991. Stuart attended grade school in the Justus area. He graduated
from Claremore High School, Claremore,OK. in 1951 and attended Oklahoma
State Univ. In early 1950's he worked for the US Forest Service fighting
fires as a smoke jumper. He was in the USAF from1953-1976.
He attended Gunnery School at Del Rio AFB, TX. and Luke AFB, AZ. where
he received his flight training commissions in the USAF. He graduated from
Aerospace Test Pilot School and was an experimental test pilot at Edwards
AFB, Calif.
From July 1962 to August 1964, he was a maintenance flight pilot at
Olmstead AFB, PA., flying F-101 aircraft. He was trained as a
fighter pilot at Langley AFB, VA where he flew F-84F and F-100 aircraft.
Following graduation cum laude from Univ. of Colo. under the AF Institue
of Technology program he did a tour of duty as chief of service engineering
at Tachikawa Air Base, Japan for two years.
Through out his career, he logged more then 5,500 hours of flying time
and 217 hours in space. His fellow crew members on the 10-day space
flight were Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell. Throughout the 33 hour
stay on the surface of the moon by Shepard and Mitchell, Roosa remained
in the lunar module "Kitty Hawk", to conduct a variety of assingned photographic
and visual observations such as the Moulten Point an area almost one million
miles from earth where the gravitational forces of the sun, earth and moon
are exactly balanced. He also, performed experiments to answer questions
about the compostion of the moon. He said it was fitting to be in
the command module because he always liked to fly alone.
After leaving NASA and the AF Roosa was Corporate VP for the International Operations for US Industries, Inc., Oak Brook, ILL and President USI Middle East Development Co. Ltd., Athens, Greece from 1976-77. Since then he moved to his wife's native Mississippi. Later becoming President and owner of Gulf Coastal Coors, Inc. Gulfport, Miss.
AWARDS
NASA Distinguished Service Medal
Johnson Space Center Superior Achievement
AF Command Pilot Astronaut Wings
AF Distinguished Service Medal
Arnold Air Society's John F Kennedy Award 1971
City of NY Gold Medal in 1971
American Astonautical Society's Flight Achievement Award in 1971
Order of Tehad in 1973
Order of Central African Empire in 1973
PMD from Harvard Business School, Mass.
Honorary degree from St. Thomas Univ., Houston
On the 20th anniversary of the Apollo flight, he chose to be in
Claremore with his mother and paid a visit to the school named for him.
He was an inspiration to the children there telling them " they could do
anything they wanted".
He was certainly proof of that!
His death came suddenly on December 19, 1994 at Fairfax Hospital, Falls
Church, VA and was said to be from complications of Pancreatitis
beginning Thanksgiving week end. He was buried at Arlington Cemetery.
He was survived by his wife Joan and three children
"Stuart Roosa was one of the "can do" space farers. who helped take America and all humankind to the moon," said Nasa Administrator Daniel S Goldin on learning of Roosa's death.
"We honor Col. Stuart Allen Roosa" He brought much to the world and much pride to Roosa descendants!
Genealogy
Stuart A Roosa
Heyman Guysbert
Albert Heymans Roosa + Wyntje De Jongh
Ariense Heymanse Roosa + Marya Pels
Evert Rosa + Tietie Van Etten
Arie Roosa + Geestje Ostrander
Evert Roosa + Gertje VanSteenberg
Jacobus Rosa + Maria Goetchins
Abraham + Elizabeth Weaver
Simon W Roosa + Elvira Percilla Jones
Dewey Roosa + Lorine DeLozier
Stuart A Roosa + Joan Barrett
Ref & credits for this page's source are:
AP News
Claremore Progress, Claremore, OK
Special thanks to
Wilma Roosa, Claremore, OK
Sally Roosa, Washington
Page prepared by Sheila Roosa Soto, TX